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The group has published first hand accounts, videos and photos of life and war crimes in
Raqqa
through its Facebook
page and website, other social media, and via interviews and furnishing material to media organizations worldwide. As a result, RSS has been cited by international media outlets fairly extensively, and major news outlets have done feature stories on the group.[3][4][5][6]
Since no foreign or domestic journalists can operate in Raqqa, the efforts of RSS provide unique insights. The work is dangerous, with ISIL militants searching for, torturing[7]
and in at least one case killing, RSS members.[8]

According to an interview with
VICE News, there were originally 17 members, who started out opposing the Syrian government. When ISIL moved in to the city in April 2014 the group started the posting information about ISIL. One member who had fled Raqqa said "After we launched the campaign and posted a lot of crucifixions and executions on the news and Facebook and
Twitter, they made three Friday sermons about us, saying we are infidels and we're against Allah and "we'll catch them and we'll execute them." "We are 12 inside the city and four outside. Before the 12 inside the city were posting on Twitter and posting on Facebook, and talking to journalists, but it's very dangerous. So we decided to use a "secret room," and the people in the city post all the photos, the news, and everything, and the four that are out, we are posting it on the internet, Twitter, and Facebook, and talking to journalists. We hide behind fake names and we don't trust anyone, so we don't get captured."[9]

Several members of RSS have been executed inside Raqqa. In May 2014, Al-Moutaz Bellah Ibrahim was kidnapped by ISIL and murdered. In July 2015, ISIL released a video showing two men being strung up on trees and shot. Though ISIL claimed the two murdered men had worked with RBSS, one of the founders of RBSS denied they were members.[10]
Another friend of the group was similarly executed.[2]
Hamoud al-Mousa, the father of one of the group's founders, was killed in ISIL custody. On October 30, 2015, RSS activist Ibrahim Abdul Qadir (age 20) and his friend Fares Hamadi were found stabbed and beheaded in Urfa, Turkey. It was the first acknowledged assassination outside of ISIL controlled territory.[11]

Abdalaziz Alhamza acts as a spokesperson.[11]
At least five members of the group live outside Syria.[2]

On December 16, 2015, masked men murdered RSS member Ahmad Mohammed al-Mousa in the rebel held city of
Idlib, Syria.[12]

Naji Jerf, the group's film director and editor-in-chief of the independent monthly
Hentah, was killed in
Gaziantep, Turkey with a silenced pistol in broad daylight outside a media building in late December 2015. ISIL claimed responsibility on Twitter.[13][14][15]

In an interview with Sarah Montague on BBC HARDtalk, aired June 22, 2016, RBSS spokesman Hussam Eesa said, via interpreter, "When we chose to work together against Daesh, documenting its abuses, we understood there would be casualties. However, it's been worse than we expected. It is an inevitable price to be paid. So far we have lost 14 people – four group members and 10 friends and family members. Currently we have 18 inside Raqqa and 10 outside Raqqa."

Soon after the release of a video showing the burning alive of a
Jordanian pilot,
Muath Al-Kasasbeh, RBSS released
Google Earth
photos they cross-referenced to landmarks pinpointing the location of the execution in the southern part of Raqqa near the river. They also reported that videos of the execution were played for the public on large screens throughout the city of Raqqa.[17]

RBSS detailed that the effects of
Russian airstrikes
in and around Raqqa were targeting mainly civilian targets, and having little effect on ISIL.[18]

Kyle Orton writing for
The Independent, said "The risks are extreme. Their bravery quite extraordinary" and wrote "Where [ISIL] presented a functioning, just government, RBSS showed the scarcity and brutality. Not a few foreign fighters ... have gone to wage "five-star jihad" ... only to be disillusioned... that [ISIL] is reportedly having to kill them to stop them leaving. RBSS's work, therefore, offers the chance of preventing people inclined toward [ISIL's] ideology actually going to Syria."[16]